Luke: an orderly account for people on the edges
A guide to the Gospel of Luke: its careful author, its heart for the poor and the outsider, its best-known parables, and how it shows Jesus seeking the lost.
Luke is the longest of the four Gospels and the first half of a two-volume work that continues in Acts. Its author says at the start that he has carefully investigated everything and set it down in order so that his reader can be certain of what he has been taught. What follows is the story of Jesus told with special attention to the people other accounts might pass over: shepherds, women, tax collectors, foreigners, the poor, the sick, and the notoriously sinful. Luke’s Jesus announces good news to the poor, eats with outcasts, tells the parables of the good Samaritan and the prodigal son, and says plainly that he came to seek and to save the lost. The book ends with the risen Jesus opening the Scriptures to his disciples and sending them out to tell the nations. If you want to see the compassion of Jesus up close, read Luke.
Who wrote Luke, and when
The Gospel does not name its author, but the traditional view, held from the second century, is that it was written by Luke, the physician and traveling companion of Paul who is mentioned in Colossians 4:14 and Philemon 1:24. Acts, the sequel, is addressed to the same reader and in several places shifts into “we,” which fits a companion of Paul writing from experience. Luke was almost certainly a Gentile, which would make him the only non-Jewish author in the New Testament.
Most scholars date the Gospel somewhere between the early 60s and the 80s AD. Those who think Acts was finished while Paul was still alive place Luke earlier; those who think Luke used Mark as a source and wrote after the fall of Jerusalem place it later. Faithful Christians hold both views, and the trustworthiness of the book does not depend on the exact year.
Why Luke was written, and for whom
Luke tells us his purpose himself, in one of the most carefully written sentences in the New Testament.
1 Many have undertaken to compose an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, 2 just as they were handed down to us by the initial eyewitnesses and servants of the word. 3 Therefore, having carefully investigated everything from the beginning, it seemed good also to me to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, 4 so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught.
— Luke 1:1-4 (BSB)
Theophilus was probably a real person, perhaps a well-placed Gentile who had been taught the faith and wanted to know it rested on solid ground. Luke writes for him and for readers like him: people who did not grow up with the Old Testament, who want to know that the story is true, and who need to hear that the kingdom of God has room for them.
How the book is structured
Luke moves in a long arc from the temple in Jerusalem, where the story begins, back to the temple, where it ends with the disciples praising God.
- Birth and childhood (1:1–2:52): the announcements to Zechariah and Mary, the births of John and Jesus, the songs of Mary, Zechariah, and Simeon.
- Preparation (3:1–4:13): John the Baptist, Jesus’ baptism, his family line traced back to Adam, and the temptation.
- Ministry in Galilee (4:14–9:50): the sermon in Nazareth, healings, the calling of disciples, and the first hints of the cross.
- The journey to Jerusalem (9:51–19:27): Luke’s longest section and his most distinctive. Many of the best-known parables are here.
- Jerusalem: the last week (19:28–23:56): the entry, teaching in the temple, the last supper, the arrest, trial, and crucifixion.
- Resurrection and ascension (24:1–53): the empty tomb, the road to Emmaus, the appearance to the disciples, and Jesus taken up to heaven.
The journey section is worth noticing. From 9:51, Jesus turns toward Jerusalem with resolve (Luke 9:51), and everything that follows is on the way to the cross.
Key passages to know
The angel’s announcement (2:10–11)
10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid! For behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people: 11 Today in the city of David a Savior has been born to you. He is Christ the Lord!
— Luke 2:10-11 (BSB)
The first people to hear of the Savior’s birth were shepherds working a night shift, and the news was for “all the people.” Luke sets the tone of the whole book in this scene.
The sermon in Nazareth (4:18–19)
In his home synagogue, Jesus reads from Isaiah and says the words are being fulfilled that very day.
18 “The Spirit of the Lord is on Me, because He has anointed Me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to release the oppressed, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
— Luke 4:18-19 (BSB)
This is Jesus’ own mission statement. Good news for the poor, freedom for captives, sight for the blind, release for the oppressed. Luke will spend the next twenty chapters showing what that looks like.
The good Samaritan (10:33–34)
Asked who counts as a neighbor, Jesus tells a story in which the hero is a Samaritan, a member of a group his listeners despised.
33 But a Samaritan on a journey came upon him, and when he saw him, he had compassion. 34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him.
— Luke 10:33-34 (BSB)
The question is turned around. Jesus does not define who deserves love; he shows what love does, and then says go and do the same.
The father who runs (15:20)
Luke 15 holds three parables about lost things, and the third is the most loved story Jesus ever told.
So he got up and went to his father. But while he was still in the distance, his father saw him and was filled with compassion. He ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him.
— Luke 15:20 (BSB)
Fathers in that culture did not run. This one does, before the son has finished his speech. Jesus told the story to explain why he ate with sinners, and he adds that heaven itself rejoices over one sinner who repents (Luke 15:7).
The mission in one sentence (19:10)
After Zacchaeus, a wealthy and hated tax collector, welcomes Jesus and turns his life around, Jesus sums up his purpose.
For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”
— Luke 19:10 (BSB)
The main themes of Luke
Good news for the poor and the outsider. Luke’s Beatitudes begin with the plainly poor (Luke 6:20), not only the poor in spirit. Women are named and honored, Samaritans are heroes, Gentiles are welcomed, and a dying criminal is promised Paradise that very day (Luke 23:43).
Joy and praise. Luke’s Gospel is full of songs. Mary sings, Zechariah sings, the angels sing, Simeon sings. The book ends with the disciples continually in the temple praising God. The response to Jesus in Luke is again and again a kind of glad amazement.
Prayer and the Holy Spirit. Luke shows Jesus praying more than any other Gospel: at his baptism, before choosing the twelve, at the transfiguration, in Gethsemane, and on the cross. The Spirit fills John, Mary, Elizabeth, Zechariah, and Simeon, and rests on Jesus at his baptism. Luke is preparing the reader for Acts, where the Spirit will fill the church.
Repentance and humility. Luke loves stories in which the wrong person gets it right. The tax collector who cannot even lift his eyes goes home justified while the religious man does not.
But the tax collector stood at a distance, unwilling even to lift up his eyes to heaven. Instead, he beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner!’
— Luke 18:13 (BSB)
How Luke points to Christ
Luke presents Jesus as the Savior promised to Israel and offered to the world. His family line runs back not just to Abraham but to Adam, because he is the Savior of the whole human race. He is the Spirit-anointed Servant of Isaiah, the compassionate friend of sinners, and the Son of Man who must suffer and enter his glory.
The final chapter makes the point openly. Walking to Emmaus with two grieving disciples, the risen Jesus begins with Moses and all the Prophets and explains what the whole of Scripture says about himself (Luke 24:27). Later that evening he does the same for the whole group, and then tells them what comes next.
44 Jesus said to them, “These are the words I spoke to you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about Me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms.” 45 Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures. 46 And He told them, “This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, 47 and in His name repentance and forgiveness of sins will be proclaimed to all nations, beginning in Jerusalem.
— Luke 24:44-47 (BSB)
Luke wants the reader to see the entire Bible as a single story that finds its center in the death and resurrection of Jesus and its outward movement in the forgiveness offered to every nation.
How to read Luke well
Read it with Acts. Luke wrote two volumes, and the second explains where the first was going. The ascension closes Luke and opens Acts. Reading them together shows that the story of Jesus did not end at the ascension but spread through the world.
Read the parables slowly. Luke has more parables than any other Gospel, and several appear nowhere else: the good Samaritan, the prodigal son, the rich fool, the persistent widow, the Pharisee and the tax collector. Ask in each one who the listener is meant to identify with, and notice how often Jesus flips the expected answer.
Watch the guest list. Keep a running note of who Jesus eats with, who he heals, and who praises God. The pattern is Luke’s argument.
Read a chapter a day. Twenty-four chapters make a comfortable month, and the reading plan below sets it out.
Two misreadings are common. The first is to make Luke a book about social kindness and leave out repentance and the cross. Luke’s Jesus does love the poor, but he also calls everyone, rich and poor, to repent, and he dies for sinners. The second is the opposite error: to treat Luke’s concern for the poor and the outsider as decoration. It is not. It is what the good news looks like when it lands.
Where Christians differ
Christians differ over the date of Luke and over how it relates to Mark and Matthew. Some think Luke drew on Mark and on other early sources; others think the Gospels arose more independently from apostolic memory. The site’s leaning is that Luke used earlier written and oral sources, exactly as he says in his opening lines, and that this makes his account more trustworthy rather than less. There are also different readings of the parable of the rich man and Lazarus and of Luke’s warnings about wealth: some hear a call to give away possessions, others a call to hold them loosely. Both readings agree that what we do with money reveals what we trust.
Where to go from here
Luke wrote so that a reader could be certain. The best way to test that is to read his account for yourself, to pray as you go, and to bring your questions to a local church where the same Jesus is worshiped. The 30 days in the Gospels plan includes Luke, and the guide to Acts picks up the story where this Gospel leaves it.